Digital golf fans were expecting the 2014 landscape to be rather barren, as EA’s Tiger Woods series had been placed into dormant status until next year. That means that if you were an early adopter and jumped from the PS3 or Xbox 360 to the new consoles, golf was simply not an option on the new consoles, or so we thought.

Enter HB Studios, a somewhat small development company located in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia, a group that up until now had been know more for their behind the scenes development on numerous less visible Electronic Arts titles.

In early 2013, the good folks at HB Studios decided to start developing a full blown golf simulation, The Golf Club, and now they are ready to share it with the world. We had the chance to sit down with the Peter Garcin, the executive producer for HB Studios, and talk about the games development, where they are currently at with it, and where they want to take it.

OPERATION SPORTS – How long has The Golf Club been in development, and what’s the size of the group working on it?

PETER GARCIN – The team that works on the The Golf Club sort of fluctuates depending on the stage of the project. I would say it averages between 10 to 15 people. We started working on the game last Spring, so It is coming up on a year that the game has been in development.

OS – What was the development team's intentions when they decided to start working on this title?

PG – When we started we had a number of different ideas that we thought were really innovative and thought would freshen up the genre. We knew from the very beginning that we wanted to have course creation and we just had to figure out how we were going to achieve that. At first we went down this procedural generation route so that everyone would be able to create courses with only a few clicks. At the same time though, we are a simulation sports development group we knew this was going to end up a golf sim, and not an arcade game.

OS – How difficult was it developing the course creator?

PG – It’s been truly challenging, but at the same time it has been really exciting for the guys. We absolutely wanted it to be accessible for everyone, but at the same time we knew the courses had to be playable. They couldn’t be just a bunch of random holes and fairways scattered around the terrain. With that in mind, we spent a lot of effort to make sure the rules of course design were embedded in the program. We actually studied real world courses and what the properties were.

As we were creating the program, we knew it was so good and that people were going to want to take it to the next level so we prototyped the editor that allows you edit everything. The biggest challenge at first was how do you make it usable on game-pad so that anyone can do it without it being overwhelming, and for it to be a fun part of the game itself. We tried a couple of different designs, and it just evolved from there. You can pretty much edit anything you want, you can sculpt terrain, you can drop objects, re size bunkers, change the way points on a hole, and even move and entire hole if that’s what you envision. For us it is kind of the defining feature of the game, and it is something we worked really hard on.

OS – As far as development goes, are you guys on target as where you thought you would be a year in?

PG – I think we are on schedule for our release during the spring, and we are tracking well for that. Any type of game where you are going trying to be a little more innovative, some things take a little longer than you expect, but in the end the game is definitely better for it. We are excited to get the game in people’s hands and that should happen very soon.

OS - Spring time has been mentioned as a release point, but is there an actual street date that has been determined yet?

PG – The date has yet to be defined. There are still a couple of moving parts in terms of distribution that have to be ironed out before we give a concrete date.

OS – Are you planning on dropping on three platforms at the same time – PC, Xbox One, and PS4?

PG – That’s the ideal goal, the only difference is you might see early access on the PC as far as the beta happen before hand. In terms of the final release though, the idea is to release the game at the same time across all platforms.

OS – You mentioned making the game accessible to all. For the hardcore sim-golfer out there, how closely will the title replicate the game of golf itself and all the little nuances that go with playing it in real life?

PS – I think for the hardcore sim player, this game will be a very realistic golf sim. We spent a lot of time on the controls and we tried to innovate there. We moved away from the meter-based control scheme that seems to dominate recent games. The game we created doesn’t have a power meter, but focuses on feel and recreating the performance of the swing. There is a lot of subtlety and depth in the controls for those who are hardcore and want to really get into the precision of the swing.

We spent a lot of time making it feel right, and its intuitive. If you want to take a short chip shot, you aren’t pressing on the analog stick in the same way you would off the tee-box. I think there is a lot of depth to the swing mechanic, and people should find it to be pretty realistic.

OS – At this point we know that there are no real courses in the game, but what about other licensed products such as clubs, balls, shirts, and hats?

PG – We are currently exploring the possibility of potential partnerships at this time, but there is nothing to announce at this moment.

OS – Will there be cross platform sharing in regards to user course creations?

PG – That’s is our goal, and there is technically no reason why that cannot happen. So we are going to push very hard for that to be a reality. There are sometimes platform restrictions that might prevent us or particular users from interacting, but as much as we possibly can, we want cross –platform sharing, cross-platform play, and cross-platform leader boards to be a reality. This is something that we as gamers are really excited about, so we are trying to do everything we can to make this a happen.

OS - Just to confirm, there is only one difficulty setting in the game – correct?

PG – Right now at this stage of the game it’s every users plays the same difficulty. We have talked a lot about difficulties and how to handle that, and there are a lot of ideas that we are bouncing around right now. One of the ways we discovered as far as difficulty levels go, is though the course designer. Course difficulty tends to be the way to differentiate tiers of players. Right now it is a very level playing field, in terms of how you play the game and your skill level, but course design will play a big role in what’s difficult, and what’s not.

OS – To confirm also, as of right now there are no out-of-bounds markers or drops included in the game?

PG – That’s correct. Right now you can play the ball from anywhere. I know there has been a lot of discussion in the community and development team on whether that’s good or not. Right now though we feel it’s kind of cool and realistic to be able to play the ball from anywhere.

OS – What about adjustable round times? Can you tee off at dawn and see natural progression of time throughout your round?

PG – We have totally customizable times of day in the game. In terms of tee off time, that is controlled in the course editor. We have talked about putting it into round options, as well as also having dynamic time of day so that it progresses as you as you play your round. Right now those features are not implemented, but they are definitely on our road map to be in there.

OS – Will the game have accurate wind from hole to hole?

PG – The wind is definitely accurate from hole to hole. Unlike a lot of other golf titles our course is one entire environment. So when the wind is set up on the course, it is a true global wind across the whole course, and not hole specific.

OS – Could you talk a little bit about real-world ball physics, and how it effects the game?

PG – There is total real-world ball physics in the game. You can control your backspin, loft and fade, and all that kind of stuff. Before you take your shot, you can set that all up, and the ball should roll and behave accurately based on real-world physics.

OS – Will there be night golf available to play?

PG – Right now we do not have night golf available. It’s not something that we ruled out, it’s just with the way the course editor works in terms of time of day markers, you have dusk to dawn options available.

OS – Can you talk a bit about the presentation style in the game?

PG – In terms of like tournaments, we don’t have plans for a crowd. One of the things we found with the course creator and the way it works, and the way that tours and tournaments so of function when you don’t have pre-set course included is different. There all user created tours and tournaments, so the focus is much more about the competition against your friends and rivals, than representing a broadcast atmosphere. Even in terms of our play-by-play, we have been moving away from the broadcast style and you get a sense of that a little bit in the videos we have already released.

OS – Will the game include a replay system from the start?

PG – We currently do not have a replay system, but there is no reason that we couldn’t implement it. We store every single shot and shot data, so we could have replays in the game.

OS – Sticking with the presentation aspect of the game, will users see things such things as sand flying on the green or divots left in the fairway or tee-box?

PG – Right now we definitely have sand flying and all that stuff – how persistent they are, I am not sure. They are definitely there for the duration of the shot, but because of performance reasons, they might go away from shot to shot.

There has been a lot of information about the game released already, and hopefully this information will expand on that. We appreciate Peter taking the time to sit down with us, and he has agreed to check back in with us periodically and give us updates on the game's status.

If you are interested in joining the beta for PC, head over to the official The Golf Club website and respond with the proper information that they require. Peter has mentioned that if include that you are from Operation Sports in signing up for the beta, HB Studios will give special consideration to our members who want to join.